Many A New Day
by Muchalu
Summary: October 2012. Living in the upper middle class town of Panem, New Jersey is something that Katniss was never able to get use to even living there for almost three years with her and her sister's guardian Effie. Yet, she didn't know her world would be turned upside down by promising her best friend one Friday that she would sit next to his crush during math class. AU
1. Not Just A Normal Friday

I know people follow me and my other stories and I want to say sorry I haven't updated in 50 years. But today is update day! And this story I have been working on for a while. I wanted to publish this story today because I knew it was ready to be seen. Hope everyone likes my first AU The Hunger Games Story!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games

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"I like Harry more."

"No I like him more."

Alright then what is his favorite color?"

"Oh come on."

"You like him more, so answer the question!"

This was a typical Friday morning at our house. Well, Effie's house. But all the same, it was a typical day. I rolled my eyes at my sister and her best friend Rue arguing over who loved Harry Styles more as I continued to munch on the toast I was eating. Thresh would be here in ten minutes to pick me up for school and he always got angry at me when I didn't eat before we headed to school. I suddenly heard running coming from upstairs down to the kitchen I was hiding out in. Damn it, now I had to deal with One Direction stuff and it wasn't even 7:45.

"Okay Katniss, who loves Harry more? Me or Rue." My little sister Prim asked me.

"I don't care who loves him more." I responded.

"Come on Katniss. You are the only one who can end this." Rue said. "Me or Prim?"

My phone buzzed on the table and saw it was thresh. He got to the house early and was waiting for me. "Um, sorry R and P but my ride is here." I quickly dashed out the house, grabbing my bag and water bottle and ran to Thresh's car. He gave me a look when he saw me running to the car and hopping in.

"One Direction talk again?" he asked as he started the car up.

"Don't get me started."

He grunted and put the car into drive, taking us both to school. Thresh and I have been friends since I moved in with Effie almost two and a half years ago. With everything that was going on in my life at the time, Thresh never asked questions when I didn't want to answer them. He just there for me and I looked up to him. Especially when I needed a shoulder to cry on. Thresh Anderson is really popular in our upper middle class town of Panem, New Jeresy. Quiet, smart, athletic, and tough, Thresh is a shoe in candidate for any division one team. He was just good at everything. Many people wondered why he even became friends with me in the first place when I first got here during our sophomore year, but no one dared to ask him. Most were slightly frighten by Thresh so they never asked.

I always think back to when I first moved to Panem, New Jersey. I was born in Kansas City, Kansas along with my little sister Primrose. Our parents didn't have much, but they had enough to keep my sister and me comfortable. My father was an engineer. He went to school for it over at Kansas State University. He loved his job working Machinery and everything. And he loved his daughters and wife. Mom was into medicine. She was a nurse in New York for the longest time. She went to school at NYU and everything. She was so happy. And when she met our dad, she felt complete. Dad used to tell us how his friend convinced him to go up with them to New York for a week to relax. His friend had gotten drunk one night and hit his head pretty badly. They rushed him to the hospital and that's where Mom and Dad met. Love at first sight.

Years later when I was just 11, Dad died in a freak accident at his job at the plant outside of our town. They never found his body and Mom never recovered from the grief. For two years, I had to take care of not only my little sister, but my mom as well. For the first year, money wasn't an issue. I was okay in Math so I was able to help pay the bills and go buy groceries. However, three months after my 12th birthday, things got rough. Mom clearly needed a doctor to look at her and Prim needed her shots. Medical bills were everywhere and soon our little family only had less than $100 to our name. I couldn't work since I was only 12. Some people in our town knew of our situations and donated to us all the time until I was 13 and could work. I worked at a local grocery store for about a year and was able to pay some bills and get discounts on food. But we were still barely making the cut still. But God sent Prim and I an angel to save us both.

Miss Effie Trinket was a good friend of our mom when they were kids. Effie soon became a well-known designer who traveled the world and worked for the rich and famous. Not seeing or hearing from her best friend in years, Effie decided to make a spontaneous trip to Kansas City to see her best friend and her family. I was shocked when I saw Effie at our doorstep one day after school. She looked at us and knew we weren't eating. She looked at the house and knew that things were rough for us. And she looked through the window and saw all our furniture gone. I had to sell it in order to have some money for bills almost 3 months ago. When she came into our house (by force) and saw mom, she was angry. She yelled at our mom for becoming like this and yelled at her for treating us like this saying that our dad would have hated her for leaving us like we were. Mom said nothing and Effie decided to take charge. She put mom in a home and took guardianship of Prim and I. I was 14 at the time.

I have a lot of demons that I fight everyday. There was an incident that I haven't told anyone but Thresh about. Not even my childhood friend Gale knows about it. I was too embarrassed to tell him. Effie helped a lot though. Once we moved in with her in New York City, she realized after four months that the city life wasn't a good place to raise us. That's how we moved to Panem, New Jersey. She bought a house for us in Panem but kept her place in New York for when she has to stay there for a long period of time or over night. Panem an hour drive to New York where Effie works and it's also the town mom grew up in with Effie. Sometimes I visit Mom's old house on Upper 12 Drive. It was a beautiful house that the typical American would live and raise their family in. Her family lived well. Yet I always wondered what happened to them. Effie told me that once I got older, she would help me locate them. She said that sometimes it's best to leave the past behind, yet in my case you should look into it to understand the future.

Before I knew it, Thresh and I were at school. "Wow that was fast." I said taking off my seatbelt.

"Yeah well, I have stuff to do thismorning. What about you?" he asked.

"Avoid Glimmer and try not to fall a sleep in Math." Thresh nodded his head and we both walked quietly to the building. Thresh received a lot of hellos from different classmates who worshipped him. Me, however, I'm ignored by most of the student body. I don't mind either. I love it that way. Thresh always said it was because people felt intimidated by me.

"Why don't you wear your hair in a different style other than this braid." He took the tip of my brunet braid and tapped it on my nose. I grabbed it from him and kept quiet. "Katniss, if you put it down you could get a boyfriend for once."

"I'm good without one thanks." I murmured.

"I know but still. It's our senior year. Who are you going to take to prom?"

"You of course." Thresh gave me another look and shook his head.

"Come on we talked about this." He said. I thought or a second and then gave myself a face palm. Delly Witherspoon. Thresh has had a crush on her since he was in 7th grade. She was a pretty girl. Kind of like a girl next-door type of girl. But Thresh could never talk to her because he hardly had time to say hi before his ex Glimmer interrupted. Feeling bad, I sighed and grabbed his brown hand.

"How about this, I will…sit next to her as an apology and talk to her. Then maybe this will help you talk to her for once. I'll distract Glimmer."

Thresh gave me a smile and agreed.

We were almost to the entrance when we hard Ke$ha's "Blow" playing loudly behind us. Cheerful screams were heard behind us and perked our interest. Turning around we saw Glimmer in her huge black BMW SUV smiling and waving to people. She was also holding a megaphone.

"ATTENTION FRANKLIN DOUGLASS HIGH, HOME OF THE MOCKINGJAYS. YOU ARE ALL INVITED TO MY 18TH BIRTHDAY PARTY NEXT FRIDAY NIGHT!"

Thresh groaned while I rolled my eyes. This again. Every year since the 2nd grade, according to Thresh, Glimmer Fitzpatrick always holds the party of the year. You can't hold one bigger (unless it was thresh that is) and it's invite only even though she says everyone is invited. She gives everyone an invite but you have to look at your invitation carefully. If you are invited, then your invitation was covered with glitter and pink hearts on the back. If it doesn't have it, they you might as well throw the piece of paper away. Thresh hasn't been to any of her parties since Freshman year. It didn't want to waste his time. And I don't blame him.

Unfortunately, Glimmer spotted us and ran over to Thresh sporting her fake smile. "Thresh! You coming?"

"No."

"Why not?! You never come to my parties anymore. Ever since that she thing came to our school."

"Katniss."

"What?"

"Her name is Katniss."

"Ugh, whatever. Just come this year okay?"

"Only if Katniss is invited."

"I invite everyone."

"You know what I mean."

Glimmer looked red as she looked between us and sighed. "I'll give you two your invites tomorrow."

"Good." Thresh turned back to the school and motioned for me to follow. I held tightly to the straps of my backpack and followed him.

I didn't know it at the time, but today was the first chapter of my new life Thresh and Effie always wanted for me.


	2. Delly

Hey! I'm still taking a break from my other fan fic for a bit. And I'm happy to see this one got some traffic! I'm really getting into this one and I have a lot in store for it as well. Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. follow and review :)

Disclaimer: I do not owe The Hunger Games

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I refuse to be part of the Math Wizards. It was one thing to be un-popular and anti-social but it was another thing to be on the Math Wizards. Remember Mean Girls? The Mathletics? Yeah I'm not into that kind of stuff. Although the people in the group are pretty funny, I just decided to wait until I was in college to join something like that. Thresh has bugged me to join since it would look great for my transcripts, but I just didn't feel like it. I didn't really want to be bothered. And that's why every time I got to math class, Mrs. Evans always tried to recruit me.

I usually sit in the back so that I could sleep but today I was on a mission. I wanted to be a good friend to Thresh so I walked over to the second row and sat next to the seat Delly usually sat, giving Mrs. Evans a heart attack in the process.

"Nice to see your face up here Miss Everdeen." Mrs. Evans said. Her big doe brown eyes were bright and her dimples on her round brown cheeks were obvious. She was excited that was for sure. And I didn't want to bring any disappointment to her today like I usually did. With a nod I opened my Math book and started to get my notebook ready for class. Delly walked in and sat down in her usually seat not realizing that I was next to her. After a minute or two, she turned her head towards me and was shocked.

"Why Katniss! What a surprise." Delly said with a smile. Delly was the nicest girl at the school. She always spoke to me even if I didn't answer back. She was a sweet girl with bouncy golden blonde hair and pale skin. Thresh had told me that Glimmer use to make fun of her when they were in Middle School for being "bigger" than most of the girls. Now 17, she had lost a few pounds but still had her curvy figure. She was always a very pretty girl and Glimmer messy with her was just not necessary. Yet Delly never let it get to her. Delly Cartwright never let her smile be turned into a frown. And I think that's one of the reasons why Thresh likes her.

I smiled at her as she kept chatting about how wonderful the class would be today and telling me about her morning. I wasn't really interested but I followed along. When wasn't this girl happy? Goodness. Class finally started and Mrs. Evans started talking about curves on the graph we were working on. I started to think about my best friend Gale from back home. He is part of the army and was recently sent to Syria to monitor different situations that were going on there. His mom and younger siblings needed money and the army paid all right. We would write letters and update each other about our lives. Gale was always a big brother to me. He has been like that ever since I met him when I was 3 and he was 7. So I always worried about him and his safety.

Mrs. Evans finally announced that class was over and made a small announcement that we should all try out for choir if we had time. Before I could head out, Delly tapped my arm.

"So I know this is totally random but I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with me today? I know you usually eat by yourself in the library but what about a change in scenery!" Delly asked. I sighed but agreed. The things I do for Thresh. I waved good-bye to her and went through the rest of my morning without any interruptions. Delly waved at me more than usual today but other than that, it was peaceful.

Lunchtime arrived and all I could stomach was the apple in my bag. I didn't even dare get in line for food. I rarely did since I brought my own lunches thanks to Sae. Yet, I made a promise to both Thresh and Delly and Katniss Everdeen never breaks her promises. With all the confidence I could gather up, I headed to the cafeteria and searched for Delly. I got a few stares when I entered the room. It was a known fact that I usually don't eat with everyone else. Most thought I was too stuck up to eat with everyone else because of Effie. However, it was mostly due to the fact that I hate eating around people except Prim and Effie. I never really felt comfortable eating big things and you are trying to interact with others. It was a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Finding Delly wasn't a huge problem. I heard her laugh and quickly turned around to see her with a small group of people. Our eyes met and she instantly waved me over with a huge smile on her face. Walking over to her table felt like a nightmare with everyone's eyes on me. I was never a shy person but I just didn't like attention. Delly scooted one boy over to make space for me. "Come sit right here Katniss since you are my guest today." She said. I gave her a small smile and sat my bookbag on the ground after taking my apple and water out.

"Welcome to the table Katniss!" Delly said cheerfully. "Let me introduce you to everyone else since you might not know them. This guy right next to me is Dauris. He doesn't talk much." I looked over to see this tall guy that I have seen in my Psychics classes. He is of Indian decent and was always really talented when it came to being a DJ I have heard. "Across from us is the lovely Kate but we just call her Fox." Delly said gesturing to the red head across from us. Her face was more like a Foxface to me but I kept quiet. "And this nice young man is my very good friend Peeta." She gestured to the blonde sitting across from me. His face was slightly pink and his eyes were staring right at me. Did I have something on me? It was almost like he had never seen a girl in his life. Peeta was pretty tall himself as well. Not as tall as Dauirs and Thresh but pretty tall. He was also pretty lean too. Which meant he played some sort of sport. I gave him a wave and he smiled. While, it looks like he wasn't broken after all.

Lunch went better than I thought. Delly wasn't satisfied with my apple and bought me a turkey wrap and pesto pasta salad to eat. "You need to be alert for the rest of the day Katniss. Can't have you fainting!" I didn't want to eat it especially with Peeta staring at me but I also didn't want to be rude as well. When lunch hour was over, I saved the rest of the pasta and walked it up to my locker to have as a snack while I waited for Thresh later. Delly and Peeta walked me up and made sure that I got to my next class alright. Delly gave me a hug and wished me a good rest of the school day before walking with Peeta to their Math class.

Before I knew it was the last bell and it was time to sit and wait for Thresh while he was at football practice. I always felt weird waiting for Thresh after school since the only people sitting on the bleachers where the girlfriends of the football players. Usually Prim and Rue sit with me but they both made it in the volleyball team so there went my bleacher buddies. After finding my seat, I took out the rest of the pesto pasta salad Delly got me during lunch and played on my phone for a little. Sometimes I really did wish I made more friends besides Gale and Thresh, but I wasn't really a talker. And one of the only reasons why I get along with those two boys is because they aren't talkers either. So I never had to worry too much.

Before practice began I received a text from Thresh saying, "Saw you with Delly. Thanks. I owe you one Little One."

I smiled at my phone and looked up to see him putting his phone in his bag and smiling at me. I owe Thresh so much, it was the least I could do.

"Katniss!" Turning around I saw Delly waving at me with Peeta by her side. "Hey do you want a ride home? Peeta drives!"

I looked over at Peeta who had nudged Delly and looked away from me. I guess I disgusted him somehow. Or maybe I was too "unpopular" for him to hang out with. After all, he was one of the most sociable and well-known people in the town.

"No, it's cool. I'm just going to wait for Thresh." I yelled back.

"Oh come on Katniss. You can't tell me you are actually having fun sitting and waiting for him with nothing to do are you?"

She was right. I was getting pretty bored and practice just basically started. Thresh was doing laps which meant another hour and a half.

"Really though Katniss," Delly continued. "Peeta won't mind. I'm pretty sure you are on the way anyway!" I turned to Peeta and saw him looking down at the ground. He looked up at me and gave me a small smile. Guess he was tired and not mad? Who knows but as long as he didn't mind then I would jump at the opportunity. Plus Thresh would be happy I was spending time with Delly. I sent Thresh a quick text telling him what was happening, grabbed all of my stuff, and headed down the bleachers to meet Delly and Peeta.

"So! Katniss, tell me about how you like it here. I know we don't talk much but I'm dying to know." Delly asked in the car. I looked up from my phone in the back seat and shrugged my shoulders. "Okay I guess. I do miss Kansas City though. Nothing beats their BBQ."

"Did you cook a lot?"

"No I wasn't the best at cooking." It was silent for a few moments until Delly picked up the conversation again.

"Peeta knows how to bake you know."

"Delly…" Peeta warned.

"Well cats out the bag now. But you can bake. You make the best cakes ever. And bread. Katniss you haven't lived until you tasted his bread. It's so good." Delly bkept talking about the different breads Peeta can make while poor Peeta was turning red behind the wheel.

The Mellarks are well known on the East coast. "Melllark's" is a popular chain bakery place that's been around since the 60s. They had a few spots around New York and New Jersey during that time. Once President Kennedy had one of their famous cheese buns a few months before he died, they became huge. Everyone wanted some of Mellark's. It was only about five years ago that they put locations in Chicago, Dallas, Austin, Atlanta, LA, San Diego, San Francisco, and Columbus. They are also putting locations in more college campuses across the country and making deals to put a location in London. So when Delly says that he is good at baking, I'm not surprised.

"I can do more than bake though."

"Oh right like painting will get you anywhere." Delly said.

"Hey you never know. What do you think Katniss?" Peeta asked.

"Um…I think you should do what you feel is right for you." I wasn't really sure what to say to him since I didn't know him. Looking up at the rear view mirror, I saw him looking back at me and smiling. My chest started to hurt a little and I quickly looked down breaking our connection. Nothing like this ever happened when I looked at Gale or Thresh. This was something new entirely.

Peeta finally made his way to my house and Delly tired to convince me to have dinner with them and Foxface. Declining, I grabbed my bag and waved good-bye to them and thanking Peeta for the ride.

"It's not a problem," he said to me. "If you need a ride, please feel free to ask."

"Yeah because it will be hard to say no to you." Delly winked. Peeta groaned and put the car in drive while Delly laughed as they drove away.


End file.
